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JFK Book Reviews - Warrior: Frank Sturgis · The Lone Gunman Podcast : JFK Assassination

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  Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome into JFK Book Reviews, a division of
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  Speaker 1: the Lone Gum and Podcast. I am Big Bad Bob.
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  Speaker 1: I can't remember which way there it is. And today
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  Speaker 1: we are going to be reviewing the book Warrior by
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  Speaker 1: Jim Hunt and Bob Rich. And this book is all
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  Speaker 1: about Frank Sturge is the CIA's number one assassin spy
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  Speaker 1: who nearly killed Castro but was ambushed by Watergate. Now
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  Speaker 1: Jim Hunt is actually Frank Sturge's nephew in all of this.
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  Speaker 2: Not too shabby. She's on a.
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  Speaker 1: Little bit of a thick side, A little bit of
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  Speaker 1: the thick side. Very cool, very cool cover art there.
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  Speaker 1: It's a good looking book, good looking picture of Frank
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  Speaker 1: American badass, Frank Sturgis.
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  Speaker 2: Warrior.
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  Speaker 1: This book was published in twenty eleven by Tour Publishing,
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  Speaker 1: the Tom Doherty Publishing House out of New York. It
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  Speaker 1: clocks in at about three hundred and fifty two pages.
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  Speaker 1: It's got thirteen chapters, acknowledgments, a preface, an index, a
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  Speaker 1: note section, a cast of character section, and as I said,
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  Speaker 1: thirteen chapters.
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  Speaker 2: That really span.
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  Speaker 1: The length of Frank Sturgis's life and Frank Sturgis is
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  Speaker 1: one of these guys, one of these gunboat cowboys that
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  Speaker 1: you never really know.
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  Speaker 2: How much of the truth that he's actually telling you.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, And I think this book comes the closest to
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  Speaker 1: actually getting to the truth about who Frank Sturgis really was,
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  Speaker 1: what he was really about, and what he was really
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  Speaker 1: doing by an actual member of his family. Frank was
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  Speaker 1: married to Jim's aunt Janet Janet from another planet, and
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  Speaker 1: he actually lived Sturgis, that is, actually lived with Jim
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  Speaker 1: Hunt and his family for a while while Jim Hunt
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  Speaker 1: was in high school at times. Because I mean, let's
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  Speaker 1: face it, when when Sturgis is back and forth between
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  Speaker 1: Cuba and America, you know, he didn't really have a
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  Speaker 1: home base or house if you will. And this book
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  Speaker 1: obviously has a conspiracy lean to it. But what the
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  Speaker 1: book doesn't try to do is paint you this outrageous
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  Speaker 1: picture of Frank Sturgis. It goes by firsthand knowledge, of course,
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  Speaker 1: from the family. Jim was able to talk to people
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  Speaker 1: about Frank, had access to some of Frank's things, and
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  Speaker 1: of course was their first hand met Frank new Frank
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  Speaker 1: talked to Frank, live with Frank for a time and
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  Speaker 1: again by the time he knew.
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  Speaker 2: Frank, he was high school age, so old.
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  Speaker 1: Enough to understand things, old enough to have an adult conversation,
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  Speaker 1: you know, as much as that could be done back
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  Speaker 1: in the fifties and sixties with a you know, sixteen
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  Speaker 1: or seventeen year old kid who's in high school but.
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  Speaker 2: Very cool.
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  Speaker 1: Frank was always his favorite uncle because of course he
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  Speaker 1: had the craziest stories. Right now now, Jim Hunt, the author.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to.
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  Speaker 1: Become a trial attorney, spent with a thirty five year
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  Speaker 1: legal career. He handled complex civil trial cases and major femilies,
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  Speaker 1: and for the last twenty five years he has been
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  Speaker 1: an adjunct professor of teaching law in Psychiatry at the
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  Speaker 1: University of Cincinnati College of Law. So Jim Hunt, right,
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  Speaker 1: Frank starts as his nephew, is not. That's cafuza, Okay.
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  Speaker 1: A very smart man again, A former trial lawyer for
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  Speaker 1: thirty five years, a professor at a casser for twenty
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  Speaker 1: five years, A very smart man and did not write
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  Speaker 1: this book for fame, money, anything. He wrote it to
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  Speaker 1: tell a story about a member of his family who
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  Speaker 1: he admired growing up and who he thinks history has
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  Speaker 1: gotten wrong, has Frank Sturge has gotten a bum wrap
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  Speaker 1: Watergate kind of friends dreams it that way, but like
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  Speaker 1: the cover of this book says, he calls them the
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  Speaker 1: CIA's number one assass and spy. And again this week
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  Speaker 1: when the Lund Gun Dumbing podcast about a couple of
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  Speaker 1: individuals who have been disavowed by the CIA publicly, the
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  Speaker 1: CIA refused to acknowledge Frank Sturgis as ever having done
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  Speaker 1: anything for them whatsoever.
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  Speaker 2: Privately.
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  Speaker 1: However, internally, I believe there's been two documents on Earth
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  Speaker 1: with the CIA confirming that he was kind of on
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  Speaker 1: the payroll, if you will, at certain times throughout his career,
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  Speaker 1: if you will, he actually met Fidel Castro in a
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  Speaker 1: movie theater in nineteen fifty eight in Miami, talked to him,
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  Speaker 1: struck up a friendship, and yeah, I mean the rest
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  Speaker 1: is history. He spent the next thirty five years trying
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  Speaker 1: to kill Fidel Castro after he turned Communist on him.
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  Speaker 1: But before that he was a Castro supporter for sure,
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  Speaker 1: like I said, until he switched to communism. Sturgis the
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  Speaker 1: real story is a fascinating one, for sure. And if
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  Speaker 1: you go back and you read and you acknowledge even
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  Speaker 1: in this book, he went back and did his homework.
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  Speaker 1: Frank Sturgis was called before the Church Committee and the
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  Speaker 1: Rockefeller Committee to give testimony in which he explained to
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  Speaker 1: them how he worked, or did work or was funded
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  Speaker 1: in some kind of clandestine way by the CIA indirectly
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  Speaker 1: for certain activities. I just wanted to read part of
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  Speaker 1: the inside cover of this book.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a very good quote.
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  Speaker 1: And this is one from Frank Sturgis to his nephew
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy four, after serving fourteen months in prison
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  Speaker 1: for the Watergate crimes. Quote, I guess it's ironic that
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  Speaker 1: I haven't toppled Castro's government, but was involved in bringing
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  Speaker 1: down the head of the government of my own country.
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  Speaker 1: And the Castro, who tried several times to assassinate me,
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  Speaker 1: never could get to me, but my country put me
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  Speaker 1: behind bars. So stirred this obviously a little bitter. You know,
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  Speaker 1: everything that he supposedly did for his country, and again
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  Speaker 1: before this, he was in the Marines, he served in
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  Speaker 1: World War Two honorably for our country, and.
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  Speaker 2: Was a very patriotic man, a very patriotic man.
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  Speaker 1: And to feel betrayed by your country by doing something
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  Speaker 1: that your government was doing, or you know, put you
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  Speaker 1: up to or hired you to do. Very interesting, shall
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  Speaker 1: we say. And again not much is known about Sturgis's life.
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  Speaker 1: He died in nineteen ninety three under mysterious circumstances. That
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  Speaker 1: story is in the book. I'm not going to ruin
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  Speaker 1: it for you, but he could have possibly been taken
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  Speaker 1: out as late as nineteen ninety three, because in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety two, you know what Frank Sturgis was still doing,
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  Speaker 1: folks training guerrilla training soldiers in the Everglades in the
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  Speaker 1: early nineties at the age of however, he was old,
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  Speaker 1: then insane, you know, at the age of sixty five
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  Speaker 1: or whatever. So this book, you know, I'm trying to
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  Speaker 1: find something here.
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  Speaker 2: Here it is, this.
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  Speaker 1: Is the grave of Frank Anthony Sturgis, Corporal, US Marine Corps,
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  Speaker 1: US Army, US Navy, World War Two. I was trying
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  Speaker 1: to see when he died. He was sixty nine, sixty
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  Speaker 1: nine when he died, or sixty eight. He was almost
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  Speaker 1: sixty nine, all right, So up until sixty eight he
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  Speaker 1: was still training guys in the Everglades to go back
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  Speaker 1: and try and kill Castro.
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  Speaker 2: That was what he thought his mission was. And remember.
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  Speaker 1: Fidel Castro was still alive in the early nineties. Fidel
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  Speaker 1: Castro personally called Frank Sturgis the most dangerous CIA and
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  Speaker 1: he had ever known. And yeah, I mean, you can't.
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  Speaker 1: You can't fake that, folks. But this book is fascinating
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  Speaker 1: and the reason I wanted to do it to see
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  Speaker 1: news because of course we were talking about Frank Sturgis
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  Speaker 1: as part of our disavowed by the CIA deal. And
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  Speaker 1: this book comes as close to being a perfect biography
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  Speaker 1: by somebody that actually knew Frank Sturgis and was related
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  Speaker 1: to him. And of course, you know, there are some
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  Speaker 1: elements of the book that make it in here, or
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  Speaker 1: some elements of fiction that make it in here, if
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  Speaker 1: you will. And he even acknowledges that you never knew
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  Speaker 1: what you were getting with Frank Sturgis, depending on the day,
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  Speaker 1: at the time, in the hour, who he was talking to.
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  Speaker 1: Much like his buddy Jerry Patrick Hemming, you know, Sturgis
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  Speaker 1: wasn't the type of guy who would just spoon feed
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  Speaker 1: you information and just give it handed over on a
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  Speaker 1: silver platter. He would make you work for it. And
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  Speaker 1: even going back and looking at like his Rockefeller and
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  Speaker 1: Church Committee testimonies, and they ask him, you know, certain things,
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  Speaker 1: and he he will talk for a whole paragraph or
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  Speaker 1: two and never actually addressed the question that they asked him,
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  Speaker 1: and then they would just move on, like you know,
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  Speaker 1: who actually paid you cash for things? And well, you
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  Speaker 1: know he was going and he never would answer answer
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  Speaker 1: the question directly. So you know, at times he played
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  Speaker 1: the role of a good soldier and he knew what
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  Speaker 1: secrets to keep and when to keep him when he
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  Speaker 1: keep his mouth shut, and when to talk. His interviews
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  Speaker 1: are some of the most fascinating ones out there ever.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, take a look at at this little bit here.
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  Speaker 3: To do that, you know, so he didn't do it,
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  Speaker 3: and he deserted the Bay of Pigs. I was involved
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  Speaker 3: in the Bay of Pigs. A lot of people who
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  Speaker 3: were friends of mine that were killed in the Maan
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  Speaker 3: Peg and I resent that don't play political games with me.
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  Speaker 3: I'm a military man, I'm a soldier. I go fight,
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  Speaker 3: but damn it, if I risk my ass out there
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  Speaker 3: and I'm getting shot at, I don't want some stupid
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  Speaker 3: ass politician to go ahead to make deals behind my
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  Speaker 3: back where my people or maybe myself are going to get.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you hear it. Right for the man. He
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  Speaker 2: is dead serious.
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  Speaker 1: You can hear his passion, you can feel his passion,
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  Speaker 1: and according to this book, Jim Hunt tells you where
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  Speaker 1: Frank Sturgis was on November twenty second, nineteen sixty three.
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  Speaker 1: Whether you want to believe the story or not is
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  Speaker 1: up to you, but I highly recommend this book right
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  Speaker 1: now on Amazon for paperback like I got, you can
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  Speaker 1: find it for brand new seventeen bucks or so. You
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  Speaker 1: can find used copies fairly cheap, anywhere from three to
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  Speaker 1: five bucks. If you want the hardcover, which was the
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  Speaker 1: first edition, you're looking at twenty five bucks something like that.
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  Speaker 1: As always, the link for the Amazon books will be
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  Speaker 1: in the description of this video and that will do
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  Speaker 1: it for JFK Book Reviews. Thanks for tuning in. Hope
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  Speaker 1: you enjoyed this book. Oh I forgot to.
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  Speaker 2: Rate the book.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, oh my god? How many guns up? I would
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  Speaker 1: you like to give this book? Well to me for
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  Speaker 1: what it is and its value and to honor the
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  Speaker 1: memory of a forgotten warrior and piece of history that
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  Speaker 1: Frank Sturgis was to this country. Whether what's been said
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  Speaker 1: is true about him or not. I'm going to give
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  Speaker 1: this book a solid Eight Guns Up.
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  Speaker 2: Baby. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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  Speaker 1: It's an interesting book from beginning to end, telling Frank
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  Speaker 1: Sturgis's story from birth to death and everything in between.
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  Speaker 1: You can't beat it. And of course, you know Jim
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  Speaker 1: Hunt is not going to know everything, but he's one
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  Speaker 1: of the closest pieces to the Sturgis Fiormi puzzle that
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  Speaker 1: we have, and it's likely the best source of information,
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  Speaker 1: you know, apart from maybe some of his compatriots. I
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  Speaker 1: believe Eugenio Martinez was at Frank Sturgis's funeral in nineteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety three, among other people notables. But yeah, this book
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  Speaker 1: is It's fascinating and loud to tell you, if true,
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  Speaker 1: very interesting, but I'm not gonna spoil it for you.
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  Speaker 1: That is Warrior by Jim Hunt. Folks, check it out
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  Speaker 1: Eight Guns Up. And if you enjoyed this book review well,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: by golly, you'll probably like the podcast that we do
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• 17:01
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  Speaker 1: streaming deep dive investigations into the death of JFK. So
• 17:10
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• 17:14
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  Speaker 1: see you next time here on JFK Book Reviews.
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  Speaker 2: Until then, peace,